ABUJA: Nigeria’s monetary policy committee is expected to leave its benchmark interest rate at 6.0 percent yesterday as the central bank uses other means to add liquidity to sub-Saharan Africa’s number two economy, analysts say.

Nigeria has injected around 600bn naira ($4bn) into the banking system since mid-August to rescue nine weakly capitalised banks and last month disbursed $2bn from its windfall oil savings as part of an economic stimulus package.

Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi also told Reuters last week that he hopes legislation could be in place by the end of the year for an asset management firm which could absorb up to 400bn naira in bad bank loans.

“With plans to add liquidity through the formation of an asset management company tasked with buying non-performing loans to free up bank balance sheets, the central bank may wish to hold off on conventional monetary easing,” said Razia Khan, London-based head of research for Africa at Standard Chartered.